“Rob Hayes, who runs marketing for NBC, was one of the first to adopt [Fullscreen’s brands-targeted] products,” said Landman. Fullscreen helped NBCUniversal launch and manage its YouTube channels. Strompolos founded Fullscreen in Los Angeles after leaving YouTube where he helped create and run its partnerships program.

The deal in several ways represents Comcast Ventures’ investment strategy. The group often leads deals, which is unusual for a corporate venture arm. The group’s foremost priority is the financial return from its investments, not the potential strategic benefit to the parent, said Landman. That’s why it tends to lead deals and take sizeable stakes in startups, even as it doesn’t ask for any sort of rights-of-first-refusal or other terms that some corporate venture arms insist upon, he said. It’s rare for Comcast to acquire startups backed by the venture arm, he said.

Comcast Ventures has held out almost half this year from investing, in part because valuations in the space were too high, said Landman. Comcast Ventures tends to invest in well-established companies, participating in Series A and B deals. (Fullscreen, for one, has generated sizeable revenue, said Landman, and has more than 150 employees.)

Because of the proliferation of tiny startups valued highly at the seed-stage in the past two years or so, many deals that landed on Landman’s desk this year, he said, were too expensive. Comcast Ventures doesn’t have the pressure of investing in a specific time period, as standard venture funds do, and so it has chosen to mostly stay on the sidelines this year. In 2012 by this time, it had made about six deals, by contrast, said Landman. The group usually makes about eight to 10 investments a year, averaging around $5 million each, he said.

Fullscreen reminded Comcast Ventures of a recent successful investment in Vitrue. That company, Oracle last year, was an early investment by Comcast Ventures. Vitrue helps brands manage their presence primarily on Facebook, in a way that’s similar to Fullscreen’s services for YouTube.

Comcast Ventures is investing roughly 60% of its dollars into digital and consumer startups now, said Landman. It also backs infrastructure companies, such as those providing broadband technologies. Over the years, the team has grown and established offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif., and New York, in addition to its headquarters in Philadelphia, where the group started.

The deal for Fullscreen builds on Landman’s thesis, he said, that online video content is attracting more viewers, especially in the millennial generation. That represents a growing market for companies that can help others produce content, as well as distribute it and build communities around it, he said.

The top 100 advertisers spent more than 50% more last year on advertising on YouTube than in 2011, said Google’s chief business officer, during the company’s annual earnings call.

“Individuals and brands who are creating content–they need help,” said Landman. “They need help to create content, distribute that content, connect with their fans, and build a community.” Fullscreen, he said, has proven on very little initial investment–less than $2 million before this round, he said–that it can sizeably increase viewership of video content and otherwise help brands.

Besides brands, there are many individuals who are increasingly creating their own content that they are trying to distribute. It’s not professional, said Landman, it’s “good-enough content” that’s cheaper to produce and consume. Landman said he’s looking at several deals for Comcast Ventures that tap into this trend, in addition to Fullscreen.

Write to Yuliya Chernova at yuliya.chernova@dowjones.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ychernova

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